Lillooet Lake is a lake in

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

about 25 km in length and about 33.5 square kilometres (22 mi²) in area. It is about 95 km downstream from the source of the

Lillooet River The Lillooet River is a major river of the southern Coast Mountains of British Columbia. It begins at Silt Lake, on the southern edge of the Lillooet Crown Icecap about 80 kilometres northwest of Pemberton and about 85 kilometres northwest of W ...

, which resumes its course after leaving Little Lillooet Lake, aka Tenas Lake (''tenass'' in the Chinook Jargon means ''little''). Immediately adjacent to the mouth of the upper

is the mouth of the

Birkenhead River The Birkenhead River, formerly known as the Portage River, the Pole River and the Mosquito River, is a major tributary of the Lillooet River, which via Harrison Lake and the Harrison River is one of the major tributaries of the lower Fraser River. ...

and just upstream along the

Lillooet Lillooet () is a district municipality in the Squamish-Lillooet region of southwestern British Columbia. The town is on the west shore of the Fraser River immediately north of the Seton River mouth. On BC Highway 99, the locality is by road abou ...

is the confluence of the Green River, which begins at Green Lake in the resort area of Whistler. The community of Pemberton is about 12 km upstream from the head of Lillooet Lake, while the eastern edge of the Mount Currie Indian Reserve of the

Lil'wat The Lil'wat First Nation ( lil, líl̓watǝmx), a.k.a. the Lil'wat Nation or the Mount Currie Indian Band, is a First Nation band government located in the southern Coast Mountains region of the Interior of the Canadian province of British Co ...

branch of the St'at'imc people is the lakeshore itself. The eastern ramparts of the mountain ranges of

Garibaldi Provincial Park Garibaldi Provincial Park, also called Garibaldi Park, is a wilderness park located on the coastal mainland of British Columbia, Canada, 70 kilometres (43.5 mi) north of Vancouver. It was established in 1920 and named a Class A Provincial ...

overlook Lillooet Lake from the west, while to the east are the northern reaches of the

Lillooet Ranges The Lillooet Ranges are the southeasternmost subdivision of the Pacific Ranges of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. They are located between the drainage of the Lillooet River and Harrison Lake on the west and the canyon of the Fraser Rive ...

which lie between the Lillooet-Harrison drainage and the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

. Lillooet Lake was part of the "Lakes Route" or

Douglas Road The Douglas Road, a.k.a. the Lillooet Trail, Harrison Trail or Lakes Route, was a goldrush-era transportation route from the British Columbia Coast to the Interior (NB another route known as the Lillooet Trail was the Lillooet Cattle Trail, which ...

, once if only briefly the principal route between the Coast and the Interior during the days of the

Fraser Canyon Gold Rush The Fraser Canyon Gold Rush, (also Fraser Gold Rush and Fraser River Gold Rush) began in 1858 after gold was discovered on the Thompson River in British Columbia at its confluence with the Nicoamen River a few miles upstream from the Thompson's c ...

. Several steamers and innumerable smaller watercraft served the busy freight and passenger traffic in those days. The best-known and largest of these was the ''SS Prince of Wales'', whose wreckage was visible on the shores of the lake near Mount Currie for many years.

External links

Aerial view of Lillooet Lake SE from above Mount Currie
* {{authority control Lakes of British Columbia Pemberton Valley